When I flew to Mexico (from Denmark) for some cave diving, I experienced every diver's worst fear while flying: all my gear got lost.
Usually, I put all the very expensive and heavy gear in my carry-on, as Air Canada, which I fly regularly, never checks the weight. But this time, I flew on last minute, so I chose WOW Air for CPH-YYZ and Westjet for YYZ-CUN. As I found out during check-in, they also check the weight of carry-on (my mistake to assume they would not), so they forced me to put most of my gear (3xMK25/620Ti+2x Perdix+2x primary+back-up lights, etc) to my checked luggage (not insured and not GPS tracked, both huge mistakes).
When I arrived at YYZ, I was told that the checked baggage was "delayed" and will be sent to CUN ASAP. Well, it took them 3 days to locate it again, after which they allegedly sent to CUN on WestJet flight. Aaand that was the last time when I heard about the baggage containing basically all my diving gear (listed above+wetsuit, fins, spools, etc).
Only now, after 4 months, they admitted that they actually lost the bag. After I claimed 5k USD compensation (I know, long shot) in lost gear and 920 USD for renting of backup gear they told me that "According to our Condition of Carriage and the Montreal Convention 1999 the maximum liability for checked international baggage is limited to 1.131,0 SDR/XDR." That means I am only entitled to approx 1.4k USD of compensation, both for the gear and the rental combined.
I already bought all the gear again as I cannot live without diving, but my questions are:
Usually, I put all the very expensive and heavy gear in my carry-on, as Air Canada, which I fly regularly, never checks the weight. But this time, I flew on last minute, so I chose WOW Air for CPH-YYZ and Westjet for YYZ-CUN. As I found out during check-in, they also check the weight of carry-on (my mistake to assume they would not), so they forced me to put most of my gear (3xMK25/620Ti+2x Perdix+2x primary+back-up lights, etc) to my checked luggage (not insured and not GPS tracked, both huge mistakes).
When I arrived at YYZ, I was told that the checked baggage was "delayed" and will be sent to CUN ASAP. Well, it took them 3 days to locate it again, after which they allegedly sent to CUN on WestJet flight. Aaand that was the last time when I heard about the baggage containing basically all my diving gear (listed above+wetsuit, fins, spools, etc).
Only now, after 4 months, they admitted that they actually lost the bag. After I claimed 5k USD compensation (I know, long shot) in lost gear and 920 USD for renting of backup gear they told me that "According to our Condition of Carriage and the Montreal Convention 1999 the maximum liability for checked international baggage is limited to 1.131,0 SDR/XDR." That means I am only entitled to approx 1.4k USD of compensation, both for the gear and the rental combined.
I already bought all the gear again as I cannot live without diving, but my questions are:
- Is there any way I can get more than 1.4k USD from them?
- What company do you use for gear insurance (non-US resident)
- What GPS tracked do you use for your checked baggage?